Mawson's Huts are rare as one of just six surviving sites from the Heroic Era of Antarctic exploration. The early 1900s was a period of great human adventure, exploration, research and discovery on Antarctica. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was the only Heroic Era expedition organised, manned and supported primarily by Australians.

The huts included a magnetograph hut, used to measure variations in the south magnetic pole; an absolute magnetic hut, which was used as a reference point for studies in the magnetograph hut; and the transit hut, an astronomical observatory.

The most important building at the site is the winter living quarters, known as Mawson's Hut. This pyramid-roofed hut was home to the eighteen men of the AAE main base party in 1912, and the seven (including Douglas Mawson) who stayed on for an unplanned second year in 1913. The hut combines two sections - the living quarters and the workshop, prefabricated in Sydney and Melbourne respectively, and shipped to the site for construction in 1912 by the AAE team.

Conservation and heritage recognition

Expeditions undertaken by the Australian government (through the Australian Antarctic Division since the late 1970s) and private non-profit conservation organisations (notably the Mawson's Huts Foundation since 1997) have carried out conservation work on the huts. In addition to archaeological recording, removal of snow from inside the huts and ongoing maintenance, recent interventions (1998 and 2006) have been to encapsulate the failing timber roofs with new timber over-cladding in order to weatherproof the interiors.

The Australian Antarctic Division and the Australian Minister for the Environment & Water Resources released for public comment a new management plan for the Mawson's Huts Historic Site in July 2007 . The plan sets the principles that will guide activities to preserve the heritage values of the site in the lead-up to the centenary of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.